Barnacle Eating Dorid

Barnacle Eating Dorid

by Hailey Surgin

Common Name:  Barnacle Eating Dorid
Scientific Name: Onchidoris bilamellata
Size Range: 6  mm(0.25 in) up to 30 cm(12 in)

Identifying Features:
Most Barnacle Eating Dorids have a mottled grey and brown colour to them. Their mantle, which is an outer layer of tissue that contains the viscera and secretes the substance that puts together the shell in other molluscs, has a brown and white pattern on it. Young dorids, and some mature adults may be completely white.  Towards the head are white club shaped tentacles called rhinophores.  They also have a circular gill plume near their posterior.

Habitat:
Throughout all the regions that Barnacle Eating Dorids live, they are all very similar. They are all sublittoral, which refers to a region that is near the shore where animals inhabit and grow as well as the area from the shore that reaches out to one hundred meters.  The depth of these areas can be up to twenty meters below sea level.

Food:
The Barnacle Eating Dorid, as mentioned in it’s name, really only eats one thing. Barnacles. The way that they eat the barnacles is by drilling into it with a specialized radula. Other parts of it’s diet also includes sponges, anemones, and coral.

Predators:
There is little information about specific predators of this species.  However, when they are disrupted or disturbed, they secrete acids that act as deterrents.

Life Cycle:
Not a great deal of information is known about this specific nudibranch, but most nudibranchs are simultaneous hermaphrodites.  A simultaneous hermaphrodite is an organism that can mate with any other mature male or female of their species as they have both male and female reproductive organs.  When Onchidoris bilamellata reproduces, they come together in large groups to mate and lay eggs in shallow water.  The life span of a nudibranch varies widely. Some live for a month, whilst others can live for almost a year.

References

British Marine Life. Worms and Slugs. British Marine Life. Retrieved May 27^th 2011
http://www.oceaneyephoto.com/photo_5352444.html#photos_id=5352444

Edwards, Rose(2004).  A sea slug- onchidoris bilamellata. Marine life Information Network. Retrieved May 29^th 2011 http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3958

North Island Explorer. Barnacle Eating Nudibranch. Marine Life Guide to North Vancouver Island. Retrieved May 25^th 2011 http://northislandexplorer.com/molluscs/barnacleeatingnudibranch.htm

Nudibranch Animals National Geographic Wild Retrieved June 3^rd 2011 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/nudibranch/?source=A-to-Z

Smith, S.E (2003) Wise Geek Retrieved June 5^th 2011
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-simultaneous-hermaphrodites.htm

Photograph by : D. Young